Nicomachean Ethics

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1. misterchephAug 2024
   Don't read blog post that completely misrepresents Aristotle, just read Aristotle:

   https://www.amazon.com/Aristotles-Nicomachean-Ethics-Philoso...

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2. dsubburamMay 2024
   Have you chanced upon Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics?

   He argues that true happiness comes from being-at-work in accordance with virtue. And that virtue can be cultivated through habit. So in his scheme, you can work towards sustained happiness.

   Three of the important virtues he devotes separate chapters to are: courage, temperance and practical judgment ('phronesis', sometimes translated as 'prudence').

   Of course, everyone develops their own map on how to understand and go about their lives. Just thought I'd share a pointer to the one in this work.

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3. riversflowJan 2024
   > I can’t pick up Kant or Hegele or Sartre

   Ah, there’s your problem, at least in my opinion/experience. You have to start at the beginning, read Plato’s Republic followed by Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. When you read them don’t take them as fact but as a “living” historical foundation that will help you set the stage for reading increasingly more recent books.

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4. austin-cheneyOct 2023
   Fear regulation. You solve for this the same way you solve for anaphylaxis: regulated exposure. Learn to embrace the fear in small doses and through frequent practice you will eventually have none. The term military people use is embrace the suck. If you do this enough you will eventually lose almost all your irrational cognitive fears, which unlocks capabilities other people find strangely and unexpectedly confident.

   Nicomachean Ethics provides further details. As for fear itself read Laches and Charmides knowing that recklessness is not the absence of fear, but the absence of risk analysis. When you are confident and fearless you can account for risk without delay of action or hesitation of decision.

   The other half is speech. Once you become confident you must modify your ability to speak in a way that reflects such confidence. You must think ahead, on one hand, in order to know what to say. On the other hand you must remain slow and in control to fully regulate your spoken words such that each word is deliberately delivered with the desired timing and emphasis. This takes practice, but is less challenging than it sounds. If you can write with confidence, you can speak with confidence. If you cannot write then I would work on that first.

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5. bashmelekJun 2023
   On the subject of different kinds of happiness, I enjoyed reading Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. He talked of eudaimonia, ie “good spirit”, “good condition of the personal daimon.” A sort of “thriving” or doing well. This is, in his language, the human good.

   But what fascinated me was the brief mention of another good, a good more proper to a god than to mankind, “makarios.” We might translate it “blessed.”

   In the everyday language of the ancient Greeks, the word could be used in other ways too. One could call the carefree lives of children, or of the rich and beautiful, “blessed” in this sense.

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6. toxicForkFeb 2023
   I talked about this with my now wife when we started dating. We need to be open and honest with each other, and if there are issues we need to talk about them ASAP instead of thinking "it will somehow be fine".

   Once you can safely establish that, it's not really hard work. Just need to be able to feel comfortable enough with the person to say your real honest thoughts and feelings.

   I understand that for some people that is really hard to express what they are thinking and feeling, to anyone, even themselves, but if you work on that, then the rest becomes easier.

   It was hard for me, this last part, and I had to find some good books and resources to help me understand myself first. The books that helped the most were Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle, and Before You Know It: The Unconscious Reasons We Do What We Do by John A. Bargh.

   Aristotle allows you to see that there is a way to find the middle in any kind of context, and that there is no really "best" in anything, or "the right way" in anything, and it really depends on the person. This allowed me to see better in others' perspectives and empathise better, and not feel too bad when there are conflicting opinions, since none of us are the same.

   "Before you know it" allowed me to see how we think, subconsciously and consciously, and how some things are in our control and some aren't.

   I hope this helps.

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